


The Siege of Manhattan

by MsMockingbird



Series: The Mockingverse [13]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Mind Rape, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:05:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6032518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsMockingbird/pseuds/MsMockingbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Asgardian seductress Lorelei takes control of the island of Manhattan -- and many of its heros. It's left to Mockingbird, Black Widow and their allies to try and free their friends and the innocent people caught in the cross fire before her mind control becomes permenant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The streets of Midtown were eerily empty at 3PM, only a few squads of the Queen's Militia briskly marching from place to place. It was day five of the siege and most of the residents who were not actively working for the Queen were confined to their homes. Manhattan sat still, like a small animal desperately hoping a predator passed them over.  
   
A lone figure jogged the sidewalks headed west towards the Lincoln Tunnel. It was wearing a dark hoodie with the hood up, athletic pants and running shoes. At first glance it appeared to be a young man out for a run as would be normal any other  day of the year. But not in Manhattan, not five days after the Queen had taken possession of Avengers Tower and invoked her will upon the people of the city center.  
   
A man shaped blur of flame speared over head. The figure on the pavement looked up and broke into a straight sprint for the Tunnel, moving faster than looked truly normal for a human.  
   
A muted _thhpt_ noise came from behind and something slapped against the figure's hood, pulling it back and down abruptly.  
   
A cascade of golden hair flooded down and now the figure in the hoodie was clearly, radiantly a woman. She spun, looking up at a man in a red and blue body suit and full face mask hanging impossibly off the sheer side of a building .  
   
"God damn it Spidey!" she shouted as she whipped the jacket over her head, leaving it hanging in mid air and deked sideways, into an alley. Spiderman, uncharacteristically silent and grim, followed her in a breath.  
   
The alley was empty.  
   
Spiderman snarled a curse and swung on a webline through to the next street. The man made of flame met him in mid air as he released his line and landed on a lamp standard, folding into a lithe crouch.  
   
"She didn't come through here," said Johnny Storm--The Human Torch.  
   
"She had to. Heroes don't activate my Spider Sense. But she couldn't have come back through. I'd have seen."  
   
"Well, she can't just--Oh, damn it. He said she might have that...what was it?"  
   
"Camo tech, right! Nose bleed!" Spiderman back flipped off the lamp and landed in the alley. Moving lightly he paced about half way down till he found a dark red spot on the pavement. It turned into a trail, leading back the way he'd come. He shot a web into the next street and leapt into the air. The Human Torch followed behind him, cornering hard and speeding down the empty street on a cushion of over heated air.  
   
Two blocks further west, the blond woman was down on one knee and one hand, her body shaking and heaving with pain. She tried to rise once, twice, the second time her legs going right out and leaving her trembling on the pavement.  
   
Spiderman landed next to her, dropping into a crouch by her head. "If you move your hands, Mockingbird, I'm going to break them, okay?"  
   
"Or I fry them off," said Torch from where he was hovering.  
   
Mockingbird nodded her head against the pavement, blood oozing from her exposed ear. "Can't stand up. You're perfectl' safe from my... fem'nine wiles."  
   
Spiderman pulled out a small radio from some concealed pocket and spoke into it. "We've located one of the ferals. Send a wagon."  
   
A NYPD paddy wagon pulled up a few minutes later and a group of armed police officers--all men--poured out. Mockingbird had closed her eyes, lying still against the warm cement, and ignored them all. Her body was still shaking. The police officers seemed reluctant to touch her and Spiderman and Torch were keeping their distance as though she was infectious but eventually four of the younger men were chivvied into hauling her to her feet and hand cuffing her with her arms behind her. Even supported by them she was unsteady. Her face was covered with bright red blood, smeared across her cheek and chin and her eye lids drooped as though she didn't have the strength to keep them open.  
   
Spiderman studied her with something like concern. "Are you injured? He...he said didn't want you hurt. Contained, not hurt."  
   
"Jus' the...tech. He knows. Be...'kay. 'ventually," she slurred, her voice weak.  
   
"All right. Put her in the back and we'll escort you to the Tower. The Queen wants a word with her."  
   
The whole group of men shivered at the thought.  
   
In the back of the wagon, Mockingbird sat alone against the inner wall, her legs splayed, her head down. Her t-shirt had ripped while she was being cuffed and the dark blue and white of her tactical suit was now visible underneath her clothes. The van had barely gotten moving, only perhaps a few blocks when she raised her head to look at the six very fit, very heavily armed young men in the cramped space with her. They were all staring at her in fascinated horror and loathing. The identical expressions were...creepy.  
   
"Hey, kid," she said, looking at the one with his back to the door. He was apparently the leader of the group from the markings on his bullet proof vest.  
   
"Shut up," he snapped uncomfortably.  
   
"I will, no worries. But first you might want to move your head." Her voice had changed, still a little weak but nothing like as debilitated as she had been earlier.  
   
"What are you talking about?" the leader snarled leaning forward.  
   
Outside there was a huge crunching noise, as though a wrecking ball had been dropped onto the pavement from a great height just behind the van.  
   
Five green fingers speared through the steel directly where the man's head had been, clenched and ripped the doors clean off their hinges. The tires of the van squealed as it was arrested in motion and lifted partially off the pavement by the enormously tall woman with green skin revealed by the door's destruction.  
   
"Well, that. Her." Mockingbird said with a grin. Then she dove forward, rolling in the tiny space left down the center of the vehicle. When she surged to her knees her hands were in front of her. She planted her feet in a runners crouch and tackled the man in her way right out the back of the van. The green skinned woman let the man fly past her but she snagged Mockingbird out of the air and tossed her over her shoulder in one smooth motion. Then she dropped the van with a tire popping slam, sending men scattering out of the open back.  
   
Upside down, Bobbi looked up at She-Hulk. "Nice timing, Jen."  
   
"Right where you said you'd be. Try not to throw up on me." Then she gathered herself and leapt. 

Jennifer Walters--She-Hulk--wasn't quite as strong as her cousin was in his transformed state but she could still leap whole blocks with one bound. In a few jumps--out distancing even Spiderman briefly--She-Hulk was at the edge of the river over looking Jersey. As she landed near the water's edge the pavement in front of her exploded into molten asphalt and burning rocks. Human Torch soared above them, jets of fire slashing out from his hands. She-Hulk just turned and let it shed from her impervious skin, shielding Mockingbird. Spiderman swung up the street straight for them, followed by a phalanx of police cars, sirens screaming. She Hulk dropped Mockingbird and spun, raising her fists above her head then slamming them against the ground. A shock wave rippled the pavement right up to the police cars, sending them slewing and spinning out of control. She raised her hands again and was suddenly tangled in webbing. With a roar, she jerked the webs violently towards her, catching Spiderman off guard. He hit her in the chest like hitting a brick wall and in the next second was flying back the way he came, arms flailing from the speed and power of her throw. 

Mockingbird was shooting at Torch, both cuffed hands on the gun she'd lifted off the man she tackled, not to hit him but to distract him from throwing another fireball. She Hulk spun again, unceremoniously grabbed Mockingbird and whipped around like an Olympic hammer thrower, sending the smaller woman flying through the air directly into the middle of the river  between one shot and the next. 

Bobbi screamed in mid air, terror and exhilaration intermingled, turning her wild flail into a fairly smooth dive. She went deep into the water, deep enough that her lungs started to ache as she arced back upwards to the surface. She broke into the air in time to see She-Hulk go feet first into the river herself, followed by a furiously burning Human Torch. He circled them both, a ball of fire forming around him.

"Bobbi ! Hands up!" yelled a voice from the above and Mockingbird stuck her cuffed hands into the air, starting to slide back under the water. The cuffs were hooked by a single strong hand and Captain Marvel effortlessly hauled Mockingbird out of the water. 

"Carol, look out. Johnny's _pissed_!" Mockingbird yelled. 

"Not a problem for me!" Carol Danvers--Captain Marvel, who other than flying and super strength, could absorb energy--yelled back. 

"Yeah, well, I'm not fireproof like some people!" Bobbi returned, but laughing.  She could see black clouds suddenly building over the river, from nothing to a wall of roiling grey in a breath. The Human Torch was about to meet his match.

A dark-skinned woman with a shock of white hair in a Mohawk swooped down over the surface of the river, coming to stop in front of the Human Torch.

"Jonathan. Get back to the island. You have crossed the line into our territory. I can strike you down at will, as per the accord," called Storm, Ororo Munroe, her voice deep and powerful, carried clearly by the winds that surrounded her.

"You sent a spy into the Queen's Tower! Why should I abide by anything?" Torch snarled, his flames pulsing and heaving around him.

"Because I can do this," she replied simply, her eyes going white as snow.

And suddenly the sky above him split open and the deluge began. Rain, sleet, even snow battered him from every side, dousing his flames, sending him diving towards the water. He screamed in rage, trying to reignite, but the power of the weather mutant overwhelmed him.

The last sight Bobbi had of him was his blue-suited body hitting the surface of the river. 

Captain Marvel hooked her arm around Bobbi's waist, snapping the chain on her cuffs with a jerk, and flew them both towards the west bank. She-Hulk was already almost there, kicking up a wake behind her like a speed boat. In the parking lot of a small river front pub Captain Marvel landed, setting Bobbi down. Storm followed and then She-Hulk hauled herself dripping out of the water to join them.

"Thanks, guys," Mockingbird said, smiling. The dip into the river had washed the blood from her face. She was still visibly unsteady on her feet though, making Carol watch her carefully. Bobbi turned to Storm. "He going to be okay?"

"He was swimming back to shore when I left."

She-Hulk stretched. "You get it?

Mockingbird gave her the side eye. "Of course I got it. Hey you know that thing they tell you to do when someone is having a seizure, jam something in their jaw?"

They all nodded.

"Well, it's wrong. Don't."

And then her eyes rolled back and her legs collapsed. Storm, She-Hulk and Captain Marvel all stared down in shock as Mockingbird rolled and frothed on the pavement.

*****

A few hours later, in the Jersey apartment building the exiled female heroes of New York were using as their base camp, Kamala Khan opened the door to one of the two top floor studios and poked her head in. 

"Mrs Mockingbird. Black Widow just came in, she and the others were wondering if you're feeling better?"

The blond woman lying on the king sized bed in the middle of the open space looked up from her StarkTab. "Hey. Yeah, I guess. My eyes can focus again anyway. Three days of using that damn camo tech on and off every few hours was...uncomfortable in ways I've never experienced." She sat up and slide out of the bed, wearing an over sized T-shirt that came down to her thighs. She looked down at herself and grimaced. "Ungh, sorry. I forgot I wasn't dressed."

"Um, s'okay. I'm not looking," Kamala said, walking over to the kitchen and staring intently at the countertop until she heard the zipper on a pair of jeans being done up. Then she looked over at the Avenger.

Mockingbird looked tired and sad, her blue-grey eyes hooded and blood shot, her cheekbones in sharp relief. Her hands still trembled a little as she picked up the StarkTab and tapped the screen once. 

The sound of a news report about the situation in Manhattan blared out for a moment, then she tapped the screen again and went silent. But the images still flashed on the surface. 

"What are you watching?" Kamala asked.

"The only thing about all this that gives me any hope at all, Ms Marvel," the Avenger replied, flipping up the device so she could see it was showing video from a few days ago of the Queen of New York giving some sort of speech to her follower/slaves. 

"That fuc--sorry--that cow Lorelei is more powerful than she was the last time anyone faced her down but this shows something important."

In the video a single shot started to loop. In it the Asgardian Lorelei--who one week earlier had shown up at the Avengers Tower imbued with enough mystical seductive power that she had been able to take over the will of every adult, straight male or gay female on the entire island of Manhattan, starting with the city's protecting heroes--was standing on a balcony over looking Avengers Plaza. Ranged behind her were a powerhouse line up of super humans: Hawkeye. Iron Man. Wolverine, caught in New York by accident and then taken with the others. The Thing. Spiderman. Human Torch. Falcon. Daredevil. Iron Fist. Luke Cage.

All of them were staring at her like happy dolls, their eyes lifeless, deep in the thrall of her magic.

Next to her stood Captain America--whom she called her Consort--his red, white and blue suit replaced with Asgardian style robes and armor in blue and yellow that left most of his torso bare. His pale beautiful face was stern and set. 

"How is seeing him with her hopeful at all?" Kamala asked, her voice pained and scared, as the two women exited into the hallway.

Mockingbird stopped and pointed to the screen. "Look at what happens when she touches Steve's chest like that--"and the clip now showed Lorelei caressing Steve Rogers in an intimate and frankly sexual manner, her hands all over him"--not at Steve but at the guys just behind him. Look at Clint's face."

And now Kamala could see something she hadn't seen the first time she'd seen that clip...well, since she'd glanced at it since the way Lorelei was touching Captain America made her feel sick and uncomfortable.

The men standing in the row behind the Queen and her Consort suddenly shifted, losing the glazed look. Anger, hatred, disgust, flashed across the faces she could see. For just a moment, Hawkeye seemed to raise the bow in his hands a little, angling it towards Lorelei; Iron Man's hand repulsers lit up. Then she stepped back from Captain America and they were all smiling puppets again. 

"They broke free," Kamala exclaimed.

"Yeah. I think she had to exert so much pressure on Steve to keep him contained while she was pawing at him that it faded off the others a little. That's hopeful in a few ways." The older woman looked at the teenager. "What ways?" She asked simply, with the air of a test.

Kamala had shown up at the apartment on the second day of the siege looking hopeful and offering her assistance. The female heros, still trying to assess the situation, had blown her off as gently possible since she clearly had a fangirl fixation on Captain Marvel, calling herself 'Ms. Marvel'.

Then she had changed her shape, expanding her fists to comically large size and growing over twenty feet tall. Minds had changed and she had been hanging out at the apartment every day since. The older women had taken to giving her tips, asking her questions, assessing her powers. She had apparently been expecting them to try and talk her out of being a superhero and was still trying to figure why they were encouraging her.

As they made their way to the bottom floor, Kamala thought about the question deeply. "Well, it suggests there are limitations to her powers."

"Yeah. Unfortunately from what we know about Asgardian magic it tends to get _stronger_ over time. So we can't rely on that. But, yes, good--what else?"

"Uh...I'm not sure," Kamala admitted eventually.

Mockingbird nodded firmly. "Good. Better to admit you don't know than blunder ahead with bad intell. This is a subtler thing anyway but it suggests that she probably hasn't raped Steve yet."

Her voice was calm and even, without dramatics or emphasis but Kamala still flinched at the words. Mockingbird looked at her sadly. "Yeah, I know. It's hard to hear. But it's something that I had to think about. She's using magic to control him, it's the same as though she drugged him. He can't consent so if they had sex it would be rape. If she has to bring so much to bear on him just to touch him like that it nearly breaks the others free...well, that's a better sign than I could have hoped for." She held out a hand and touched the teen's arm. "Kamala, we need to sit down and talk one of these days...well, if not to me, you need to talk to Carol or someone you trust...about some of the hard bad truths of this life. None of us are going to try to tell you to quit if it's what you want but...very very bad things can happen to us. _Have_ happened to us. It's something you need to be prepared for."

"Even?"

"Yeah. Happened to me. It's happened to more than one of us--the guys too. It's something to think about, okay?"

They were at the bottom floor apartment that had been set up as a command centre by now and Bobbi's face had gone still and hard. She opened the door to a dark room lit with computer screens and a single lamp on a wooden table.

She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Storm, The Invisible Woman and Kitty Pryde were all standing around the table, looking down at a long sheet of paper. A frighteningly beautiful red haired woman was pointing at something written there. She looked up and instantly that she saw Bobbi she crossed the room and grabbed her by the back of the head and the upper arm. Bobbi repeated the gestures, leaning in until their foreheads were touching.

Translated from Russian

_Mockingbird: Are you well, sister of my heart?_

_Black Widow: As well as you, blood of my blood._

_Mockingbird: That bad?_

_Black Widow: At least I was not carried in here convulsing and spitting foam._

They smiled at each other then, and broke apart. 

"I was trying to think of it as a stress test on the camo tech," Bobbi said wryly.

"It seemed more a stress test on you," Black Widow retorted. "If I'd known you were going to run mad I'd not have left for Washington."

"We needed to update the President and he always listens to you. I've been scolded by Steve in front of the White House staff one too many times for any of them to respect me any more."

"Yeeeeesssss," Black Widow drawled. "The diplomatic equivalent of breaking the dishes as you wash them, don't think I didn't notice."

Mockingbird stuck her tongue out at the other Avenger, then sobered swiftly.

The energy in the room changed as the two Avengers moved back to the table, Kamala stepping to one side to watch the conference avidly. 

Though all the women in the room except for her were long-time heroes it was clear that Bobbi and Natasha were considered 'first among equals' in many ways: the Avengers were the elder Statesmen of the community. There was an air of deference and respect that hadn't been evident before.

Bobbi looked down at the paper, a print out of the public areas of Avengers Plaza. "Boy, do I miss Jarvis already."

"You said you got the data, Mock, but we didn't find it on you when we brought you in," said Carol, looking up once in a while to study the surveillance feeds on the monitors. Second shift was out guarding the bridges and tunnels to the city and Carol was keeping an eye on them.

"That was sorta the point," Bobbi replied, then bizarrely dropped to her knees and laid her head on the table top, baring her right ear. Without pausing, Black Widow pulled out a small clasp knife and plunged it into the skin just above the sliced off section of Mockingbird's ear lobe.

Kamala yelped in shock.

Along with a little blood, Natasha pulled a small pouch out from under the false skin flap, then shook a tiny data chip out of it onto the table.

Mockingbird stood back up, pressing on the tiny wound with her fingers. "Insulated and shielded in there, uses the metal and heat of my blood to confuse sensors. Might become detectable after death."

"Jesus, you people," She Hulk said with a head shake.

"What? Spies, Avengers or weirdos?" Mockingbird responded.

"All three."

Kitty Pryde picked up the chip and slotted it into Mockingbird's custom StarkTab.

A holographic data stream fountained out above the surface for a moment, then she switched it off and nodded. "Yes, that looks right."

Around the table, serious looks were exchanged.

"The security codes and schematics for the entirety of the Avengers Tower. How the heck did you even know where to find them?" Pryde asked Mockingbird.

"By guess, by camotech and by knowing the twisted convoluted mind of Tony Stark way better than I want to. Is it going to be enough?"

"It will have to be," said a new voice from the shadows in the corner.

A man's voice.

Stephen Strange stepped into the light.

"We don't have much time left to save our friends if n--"

His words ended abruptly when She Hulk picked him up and prepared to body slam him to the floor.  
   
   
   
 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened when Lorelei took the Tower...and an unexpected development...

"Jen put him down!" Yelled Mockingbird.

She Hulk paused with Doctor Strange hoisted above her head.

"He's the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, if she'd turned him we'd all be in front of a firing squad already," Black Widow snarled.

She Hulk looked at Captain Marvel, who nodded. The green skinned woman set the man in the long red cape down. To his credit, Strange was remarkably non-plussed by the assault, though he did have a sarcastic edge to his voice when he spoke.

"I'm not certain what brought that on," he remarked, adjusting his clothes with neat fingers.

"I'm a Hulk," Jen returned matter of factly.

There was a pause and then a chorus of snorting laughter ran around the room. In the lightened atmosphere, Strange stepped up to the table. "I'm sorry it took me so long to join you--or that I could not get a message out but I was literally besieged in my house."

He slipped off his broach and put it on the table, made a sweeping complicated gesture above it. An image formed as though from a bird's eye--it was probably an actual bird--showed the streets outside Strange's mansion. They were packed with police cars, two and three deep in places, all the way around the block. Walking amongst the uniformed officers was a very tall, very muscular. Dark-haired man in black, with a white streaked skull emblem on his chest. He seemed to be in charge, and have an air of being generally annoyed at all times.

"Oh, thank Christ, I was getting worried we hadn't spotted Punisher yet. Kept picturing him lining up shots from the next building over," Mockingbird muttered.

Strange grimaced. "She's laid something on him that made him magically 'bullet proof'. I could not get out past him physically or magically past the barriers she laid in my residence. Until today, that it, and I had to physically risk the astral to do it. I would have thought she'd send Iron Fist."

"Bad tactics," said Carol, who was after all a serving Air Force Colonel. "Don't fight magic with magic. A bullet between the eyes would be more effective in the end: solid, prosaic, simple. I'd have sent Hawkeye, myself. Just Hawkeye, no cops, waiting across the street, with that sniper's patience of his..."

Mockingbird jerked a little, the skin around her eyes and mouth going tight in a flinch. 

"Carol, publicly ruminating on how to assassinate one of our allies _better_ is perhaps not too polite?" Sue Reed remarked. Of all of them she was the calmest. Her husband and children were safe, out of the city, with Professor Xavier.

Doctor Strange just shook his head, releasing the whole train of thought.

Black Widow nodded thanks to Sue, then addressed Strange with concern. "Won't she know you're gone?"

"No, Wong and some of my familiars are holding the fort. Together they look remarkably like me magically. But it won't stand up to close scrutiny long or casual glances much longer."

"Well, with the intell Mockingbird got out of the city, we have the basis of a plan now," Storm said, running one long elegant finger over the map of the Tower. "We should see if the Army can watch the access points for a few hours, recall the whole group, do a briefing."

"Agreed. We can conference in with the Professor, Cyclops, MI13 as well--"

"Hold." Strange interrupted Captain Marvel. "I have been starved of information for days, other than knowing an Asgardian power was in the city. I must ask...where is Odinson? Where Banner?"

Everyone looked at Mockingbird and Black Widow.

"Yeah, come to think of it," Kitty Pryde said slowly," you both vanished after muster before we could ask you. Does she have them locked away in the Tower or something?"

Mockingbird and Black Widow had a conversation without speaking, all cutting glances and flashing gestures. Then the blond woman sighed and sat down on the edge of the table.

"Spiderman showed up at the Tower...we were both away for that part..."

*****

_Five Days Earlier_

Bobbi and Natasha coasted their motorcycles into the underground Avengers only parking level, which was mostly just Tony's cars, the one black sedan they maintained for incognito travel and the rather extensive collection of motorcycles the rest of the crew used on a daily basis.

Bobbi had a bulging backpack that she opened, sorting out Natasha's packages from her own. They'd left FitzSimmons on Broadway, waiting to see a show. Even Pepper Potts couldn't manage to get more than two tickets to _Hamilton_ last minute.

The express elevator let them out on the common floor a few minutes later and they made their way towards the personal elevator. Bobbi happened to glance to the right was she walked past the living room and saw a lean figure in a red and blue body suit with a web pattern on it talking to Steve out on the patio. She detoured and opened the sliding doors.

"Hey, Spidey, you finally staying for supper?" She yelled. Spiderman waved at her in an off-hand manner, still speaking intently to Steve, who threw Bobbi a 'back off' look.

Bobbi laughed and rejoined Natasha. They both got off on their personal floors, Natasha first. Bobbi found the Nest empty and quiet, which she hadn't expected. Clint had known damn well she was buying lingerie today. Maybe he was down with Nat?  
In the elevator she was joined by Bruce Banner, who'd been on the roof recalibrating something for Tony. 

"Hey, Bobbi. What's up with the crowd in the park? Tony throwing a carnival again?" Bruce asked casually, looking at this StarkPad.

"Crowd?" Bobbi repeated. She and Nat had come in the other side of the building.

"Yeah, bunch of people in the plaza, all looking up at the Tower, started showing up about twenty minutes ago. Think they followed Spiderman? He swung in about that time."

The door opened on Natasha's floor and as Bobbi got out she caught Bruce's wrist and tugged him along with her. "Let's go talk to Nat about it."

"I was going to the lab," Bruce protested gently.

"Humour me," Bobbi said.

Inside Natasha's private apartment --outfitted with a full ballet barre, dance floor and mirrors along one side of the living room--they found Black Widow and Thor, but not Hawkeye. As Bobbi and Bruce entered, Natasha looked up sharply. 

"Do you know what's going on our there?" She snapped.

"No, just found out about it."

"I just landed a few moments ago and saw the crowd myself," Thor rumbled. "I found them..odd. The lady Widow was the first person I encountered. We were just about to go speak to the good Captain."

Without speaking, Bobbi stalked over to the television that took up a lot of one of the walls. She touched a call button on the side; Natasha had requested Jarvis not monitor her space on a pro-forma basis as he did with the others.

"Jarvis, can I please get the panning camera on the mezzanine level facing the plaza?"

A much closer shot of the gathering crown popped into view, sweeping from one side to the other and back again.

All four of the Avengers studied the image.

"It's nearly all men. At least 20-30 to one," Natasha muttered. 

"With identical expressions and body language," Bruce concurred.

"There is someone in the middle of that group there. The officers of peace." Thor pointed to a knot of NYPD officers who were escorting a woman with long strawberry blond hair and right clothing through the crowd. Not as a prisoner, but as an honor guard. They couldn't really made out a lot of details about her as the crowd swirled and parted around her. Then the doors to the Tower opened and Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Falcon and Spiderman moved out to meet the group of officers and their charge.

"This is bad," Bobbi hissed. "This is wrong."

"I don't know--what the hell?" Natasha snapped.

On the screen, Tony Stark had fallen to his knees in front of the guarded woman, his expression one of worship. Steve Rogers surged forward, hand raised to punch the woman when Spiderman suddenly shot a barrage of web fluid at him, tripping and entangling him. Even Steve's enhanced strength wasn't enough to break the webbing. Falcon and Hawkeye's weapons came up, pointed at Spiderman--then wavered, in shock.

The woman stepped forward into a clear shot of her face.

"Lorelei," snarled Thor, who looked instantly ready to smash through the window and hurl himself at her.

On the screen the Asgardian sorcerer looming over Steve made a gesture and in the next breath all of the police officers pulled their guns and took aim at random people in the crowd. Through the throng, other guns, knives, sticks or just rocks and bricks pried up from the flowers beds were raised, all mindlessly threatening someone else in the crowd.

Falcon and Hawkeye froze in horror.

"Thor! Stop!" Bobbi snapped. "Damnit, look out there. The last time she was on earth she could control, what, six guys? A dozen? There's _thousands_ of men and women out there. She's apparently got to _Spiderman_. How is she doing that? Think!"

Thor paused in his head long charge, Mjolnir twitching in his hand. Then he cursed, violently, in Old Norse. "Loki! My brother, damn his soul!"

"Yes," said Black Widow. "And if she's that powerful, can you defend yourself against it?"

"Yes!" Thor yelled.

"Are you sure? Are you sure?" Bobbi yelled back. "Because 'probably' isn't good enough. I think--look at the cameras--I think she's controlling the _whole island of Manhattan, Thor_. She's going to have Steve and Sam and Tony and...Clint, in a minute, look at them." On the screens, Falcon and Hawkeye had joined Tony on their knees, lined up in front of Lorelei with pure hatred on their faces. The watching Avengers looked away. "What if she takes you too?" Bobbi looked at Bruce. "Worse, what if she...I have three words for you all. Love. Sick. Hulk."

That stopped Thor dead and the appalled and horrified expressions on every face were identical. 

"What do we do?" Bruce all but wailed. Brilliant, wise and brave did not equal tactically sophisticated.

"You leave," said Black Widow abruptly. "You go to Asgard, now, with Thor. You're both safe there. And that makes a second front for us if we can't stop her. Mockingbird and I leave the city, gather the unaffected heroes, make a plan. We tell the Professor--another front if we need it, retreating to Salem."

Thor snarled, his face twisted with rage...then, reluctantly, nodded. "Yes. I will take Banner to Asgard and speak with my parents. We will watch. If you have not ended this in...seven earth days...I will return with an army and end it once and for all. Agreed?"

Black Widow and Mockingbird nodded. With that, they all ran out of the room, Thor and Banner to the balcony to call upon Heimdall, the women headed for the armory. A sharp flash of light behind them indicated the men had been taken up by the Bifrost. 

They armed themselves with all the spare gear they could hold, watching the cameras the whole time. As Bobbi was finishing buckling and zipping her camotech impregnated tac suit they saw Falcon fall to Lorelei's magic. He joined Spiderman at her side as she turned to Hawkeye.

"Jarvis, off," Bobbi gasped. "I can't...I can't see her mind fuck him like that...oh, Nat, how did you handle it with Loki?"

Black Widow just shook her head. "We have to assume we're about to lose control of the building, of Jarvis. We have to get out, now."

Jarvis himself spoke then, calm and forthright. "Indeed, Mr Stark has already ordered me to lock down the main entrance. But he has not yet ordered a lock down of the garage or the elevators."

The door to the private elevator slide open, onto an empty shaft. The car was floors above, on Black Widow's level. 

Without pausing the two Avengers leapt into the shaft.

On the far wall, a recessed pole was set into the concrete with enough space for a human to shelter, coated with lubricant. Both woman hooked their hands and feet onto the pole, Mockingbird above Black Widow.

The slide down the pole like exceptionally lethal firemen, all the way to the garage level. Their bikes were still there, gassed up and ready.

Each took out their Avengers ID cards and laid them on a work table. They would be abandoning them here.

"Ready?" Widow said. Mockingbird nodded.

In perfect time, they tapped out a complicated rhythm on the front of the cards. The liquid crystal faces turned pitch black and the outgoing audio locked open.

And---

_In a law office in the Upper East Side, where Jennifer Walters was just looking up from her desk wondering why the rest of the floor had gotten so quiet..._

_In the cockpit of a highly experimental fighter jet over a highly secret Air Force base in the Nevada desert..._

_In the crowded dining room of a boarding school in Salem Center, New York..._

_In the Headquarters of MI-13 in London..._

_In a dozen dozen rooms and vehicles, in the forest, on mountains, underwater, in the air--the female heroes of the Earth heard:_

"This is Black Widow, calling a Condition Black. Aveng--" 

And the Black Widow, the unbreakable, the unbowed, the unbending...Black Widow's voice _broke and failed_.

Mockingbird took up the formal words, her voice dead and cold.

"Avengers Tower...has been taken."

*****

"After that," Mockingbird said in the room in New Jersey, "it was just a car chase. I'm glad we managed to grab Simmons on the way out of the city, though.

In fact, the Englishwoman was co-ordinating the defense on the east side of the island and doing a magnificent job of it. 

Black Widow reached over the table and laid her hand on Mockingbird's shoulder. 

"Carol, Storm, while we were out of touch, I take it you formed some sort of plan?"

"Yeah," Captain Marvel said, reaching over for her own personal computer, "It's not complicated--"

"Stop." Black Widow cut her off, sharply. She looked at Mockingbird, who nodded and they both stood back from the table. The rest of the heroes looked suddenly worried, there was such an air of tragic finality to both of them. 

"We don't want to know," she finished.

"What do you...mean?" Storm said in a slow, tight voice.

Mockingbird shook her head. "Our special skills are infiltration, information gathering, espionage. We've done that part. We're...just another couple of ground fighters now, and not even very useful ones. In fact, we're a liability to you all."

"How? What are you talking about?" Kamala gasped, jumping up to join the group at the table, who parted to let her in.

Black Widow smiled at her, sad and small. "The most dangerous person on the island right now isn't Lorelei, Ms. Khan. It's not Iron Man, nor Falcon, nor Hawkeye."

"Not Thing, or the Torch or Spiderman. Not even Wolverine," Mockingbird continued.

"It's Steve," breathed Captain Marvel, nodding her head suddenly. 

"Yes," Mockingbird said. "He's the brain behind all of this, the puppet master for the puppet master. He's the reason the security on the bridges and tunnels is so tight, and so disciplined. And while we work hard all the time to surprise him in training...we don't always succeed. And we can't risk the lives of everyone here, and on the island, on 'usually'. Because if we don't end this all in two days or less, Thor's coming back with an army. He'll stop her--and level the city in the process."

Black Widow held out her hand. "Steve knows us too well. So we can't stay. We can't know what you're planning. It's one reason why we removed ourselves from here as soon as we could at the start."

"We have one gift left though," said Mockingbird. "Tomorrow. Be ready with whatever you've got. We'll give you a sign."

"We'll know it when we see it right?" Kitty Pryde said, her clear brown eyes filled with respect.

"Yes," Black Widow nodded.

Mockingbird looked at Ms Marvel, who's face was a study in stricken grief.

"Hard, bad choices, Kamala. This is one of them, sometimes the most important. Knowing when to leave."

Carol Danvers straightened up and saluted them both. Sue Reed raised her hands almost in benediction. Storm merely nodded, regal and dignified. Doctor Strange, almost in shock, was shaking his head. 

Black Widow and Mockingbird left the last defenders of Manhattan behind under the roar of their motorcycle engines. Above and around them, going in the other direction, flew, jumped, drove, teleported and ran the women who would try to take back their home in a few short hours.

Without the Avengers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Black Widow and Mockingbird go home, to meet the monster who took their team face to face.

The next day, just before noon, the two heroes guarding the tunnel into Manhattan (along with several dozen female police, national guard and army members) were both pacing in the shade in front of the one opening that had been left into the space. She Hulk had blocked most of the lanes with slabs of concrete.   
    
Patsy Walker -- Hellcat -- and Jessica Jones (who didn't use the name Jewel any more, or wear a mask) were old friends. As they paced, they bickered back and forth coolly about a dozen topics, both darkly flippant; black humour was the only thing holding Jessica together at this point. She was desperately worried about Luke Cage who _wasn't her boyfriend, okay, stop asking_.  She flipped her dark hair back and forth over her shoulders nervously.   
    
They came instantly alert when two road bikes pulled up to the barrier and the women riding them removed their helmets as they dismounted.   
    
Natasha and Bobbi both look pale and sad but well rested, their eyes clear, their posture determined. They were both in full combat gear, with all their weapons, insignia and trappings. Hellcat waved and sauntered over with Jessica following more warily. She and Bobbi were not the best of friends for reasons neither of them had ever specified.   
    
"Hey, Romanoff, Barton. Carol said you might show up at one of the crossings today. What's shaking?" Hellcat said in that surface easy but brittle manner of hers. Every interaction with her seemed on the verge of violence most of the time. She squinted through her yellow cat mask, making her eyes little more than slits.   
    
Black Widow answered, Mockingbird hanging back and staying quietly out of Jessica's vision.   
    
"We're crossing the line, Hellcat. Just us and the bikes." Natasha looked around at the clusters of troops, the police cars, the well maintained water and food stations. Carol Danvers commanded almost as much respect with the armed forces as Captain America did; she could get things done swiftly and well.   
    
Hellcat nodded. "Yeah. We're not supposed to let you do that." Her voice was flat and calm but her hands twitched, the sharp black claws set into her gloves gleaming wickedly.   
    
Mockingbird stepped up then, standing at Black Widow's shoulder. She was appreciably taller and more muscular than all of the other woman, her powerful build made evident by her body suit and jacket. There was no overt threat in her motion and her manner was as surface easy as Hellcat's own. "Before we get to the punching part--" _which we will win_ was the subtext to the words--"has anything changed in the city over night? We've been out of touch."   
    
Reluctantly, Jessica nodded. "Yeah, they added a new member to the collective at the Tower. Carol sent around his picture trying to ID him." She pulled out her Starkphone and showed a slightly blurry surveillance drone shot of the plaza of the Tower. A man with a bare torso was looking at Lorelei and Steve in the usual posture of worship; his hair was a distinctive Mohawk style and his skin was marked with tribal tattoos on the left side, visible even from a great distance.   
    
"Oh fuck me!" Bobbi yelped, staggering back from the phone as though it had attacked her. "What the ever-loving FUCK is _he even doing in New York_ ?"   
    
"Storm said his name was Daken and then made some cryptic comment about him not wanting anyone _else_ to beat on Wolverine." Jessica said, her eyes narrow as she looked at the blond. Jess was a private detective, and a good one and this was a new mystery in her life to distract her.   
    
Natasha nodded. "That makes sense." She looked at Bobbi with worry in her eyes. "Do you still--"   
    
"Yeah, " Bobbi snapped. "Yeah, but no but yeah but we have to. You'll excuse me if he looks at me and I have a panic attack though, okay?"   
    
"You know him?" Jessica asked.   
    
Bobbi nodded reluctantly. "Almost but not quite biblically and against my will. Though he certainly fucked Hawkeye and I around in Madripoor." She winced. "Sorry, I just...that was not someone I was looking forward to seeing ever again."   
    
Oddly, Jessica's manner towards the blond woman softened a little. "Never thought I'd see the almighty Mockingbird scared of someone. And then admit to it ," she grunted.   
    
"Ms. Jones, you meet him and you'll understand why I have no shame telling you he terrifies me to the core. I'm less scared of the Hulk with the munchies."   
    
The other three women all smiled just a tiny bit at that image. Then Hellcat and Jessica exchange a look...and stepped back, away from the entrance to the tunnel.   
    
"So we're not supposed to let you past...says the army and the Governor. Danvers, on the other hand, says: Good luck with whatever insanity you have planned," Hellcat said simply. The Avengers nodded their gratitude, replaced their helmets and in a heartbeat were gone. 

At the far end of the tunnel, the scene was equally calm and collected. Here though were lines of armed men all staring intently into the gloom from just inside the shadow line, and as the two motorcycles approached a lot of guns were pointed in their direction. 

The women stopped within shouting distance and Black Widow flipped her visor up. "We want to approach," she called. 

There was a flurry of conversation between the slightly older man who was clearly in charge and his aide, who eventually moved forward and yelled back. "You are both on the prohibited list. Turn around and go back to the other side."

Mockingbird flipped her visor up. "Call the Consort. Tell him the ladies are coming home, whether he likes it or not. But if you let us through now, peaceably, we'll do it on his terms."

The aide retreated and made a phone call. The answer he got seemed to surprise him and he turned to his commander for confirmation. The older man took the phone and spoke quickly, then nodded and hung up. He looked at his aide and shrugged. 

A few crisp orders peeled back the line of soldiers, exposing an area enclosed by two trucks and lined with concrete barriers at the end.

"Come forward, get off the bikes and then push them--engines off--into the parking lot there," the aide pointed to an area being hastily cleared of jeeps and military vehicles. Then wait for your escort to arrive."

The Avengers did as they were told, ending up sitting on their propped cycles and chatting while surrounded at several body lengths by young, nervous, frightened men pointing guns at them.

Bobbi looked around at the group through her tac goggles, their yellow tint disguising the complicated and powerful HUD display inside. "So, if something goes sideways here, which side do you want? Behind me or behind you?"

"Behind you. I trust you to have my back," Black Widow said, her own eyes flicking across the line of young men, then returning.

From high above came two simultaneous noises: the muted roar of a fire and the soft _thfffppppttt_.

Human Torch circled and landed, his flames winking out along his limbs as he stepped towards the women; Spiderman flipped through the air to drop down behind them. Both were still grim and silent and utterly unlike themselves. Mockingbird and Black Widow stood up and went back to back, Mockingbird facing Spiderman.

In front of Black Widow, the crowd parted and two men stalked into view. Stalked literally: both moved more like hunting animals than human men. They were both of a type--stocky, shorter, solidly muscled with belligerent chins and clenched fists. One of them was wearing a body suit in brown and tan, with a mask and cowl that flared up into a mimicry of animal ears; the other was shirtless, his hair in a mohawk, his left side a swirl of dark tribal tattoos.

"Mock. Wolverine and Daken," Black Widow said softly.

"I know," came the reply, audibly unsteady. "The wind just shifted; I know that scent."

Black Widow could smell it now too: musky, sweet, not just male sweat but something more sinister. Pheromones, riding on the wind, making fear start deep in the back of the throat until both women could taste it like bile. 

"Heeeey, blondie," Daken called mockingly. "Nice to see you again."

Bobbi didn't turn around but Black Widow felt her spine go stiff. 

"Strong, strong, " Natasha murmured. "He can't hurt you right now."

"It's later I'm worried about," Bobbi whispered back.

"Zip it, kid," Wolverine grunted at his son, who subsided with a glare at his father. He addressed the women. "Consort says you come on foot. And you both strip first, to the underwear."  
"If we say no," Black Widow asked calmly, "what happens?"

"You die," Torch snapped from next to Wolverine.

"Johnny, are you on crack?" Mockingbird finally turned around, her gaze skittering off Daken as she turned. "That's not your voice. That's not Sue's brother. That's not my friend."

Torch's face twisted. "Shut up, bitch." 

Wolverine's claws snapped out with their classic _snikt_ and Torch subsided. 

"No more talking. Strip or die. Choose."

Grey-blue met green and a decision passed from gaze to gaze. Calmly, emotionlessly, Mockingbird and Black Widow stripped off their clothing as though in their own bedrooms, ignoring the hundreds of eyes watching them. The only indication either of them had any problems with the whole thing came when Daken started to circle them like a shark. Every time he passed in front of Bobbi her hands got clumsy, her fingers faltering. He grinned at her each time, making little kissy lips and slightly obscene hand gestures. 

In a few moments, the two women stood barefoot on the cement. Their tactical suits and other clothing were neatly folded and piled with their gear on the motorcycles. They were wearing plain, functional underwear: sports bras and sturdy panties.

Black Widow looked at the officer in charge. "I'd suggest no one touches this stuff. It wouldn't be safe for you."

"I thought he said everything but the underwear," Spiderman said quietly to Wolverine. He gestured at Bobbi's left hand, held uncomfortably against her chest as though she was trying to cover herself. On her ring finger, a band of gold gleamed.

Mockingbird grimaced and started to slip the ring off; Wolverine shook his head and she paused.

"Let the woman wear her wedding ring," he snapped.

Then the Torch leapt into the air again, Spiderman swung down the street and landed on a street light. Wolverine and Daken flanked the two women as the crowd of soldiers parted to open their way east. In the distance, Avengers Tower gleamed silver in the sun.

Black Widow and Mockingbird walked at a good pace, not hurrying, not dawdling; they both looked strangely dignified and peaceful for two almost naked prisoners been escorted by men who had been their friends and were now their captors.

They kept their hands well away from their bodies at Wolverine's orders and all four of the men acted like they were a combination of infectious and lethal, not coming closer than a few paces. Even Daken kept his distance, his face cold and focussed as he prowled around them, watching for trouble. Armed men stood at each intersection and alley way, watching them, keeping the streets clear for their walk. Behind them, the few inhabitants of Manhattan who had freedom of movement struggled to catch a glimpse of the women as though they were captured beasts.

They made pretty good time, reaching the plaza in front of Avengers Tower when the sun was still high. The circular area just underneath the mezzanine balcony was lined with armed men.

The balcony was lined with heroes. Lorelei and Steve were missing but all the others were standing in formation at the low concrete railing. Wolverine ordered the women to stop walking and stand still just in front of the water feature that centered the area: a giant metal "A" that ran with ripples of water. At night it lit up and cycled through the team's colours: red, gold, blue, purple, green, white. Torch and Spiderman landed on the balcony and took their places in the line.

Looking up at the line of men, Mockingbird and Black Widow's eyes went straight for a sandy-haired figure in a black and purple tactical suit, a sinister black bow held in his grip. Hawkeye looked down at his half-naked wife and best friend with a face empty of expression. Then, slowly, his eyes squinted and they both saw the hand clenching the bow jerk to one side, as though trying to wave or spasm open.

Daken and Wolverine had walked up the side stairs and slid into their places. 

For a long moment, everyone stood staring at each other in silence. The plaza was empty but for the women and it felt nearly desolate, as though the people here were the last in the world.

Then there came a blare of trumpets and Lorelei sauntered into view, followed by Steve. He was straight out shirtless now, and the Asgardian stroked her hand idly across his chest as she stepped to the railing. She looked down at the two women, her achingly beautiful face rearranging itself into a theatrical expression of distaste. Her mouth opened--

And Mockingbird yelled up: "A fanfare? Who the fuck comes out to a fanfare in the real world?"

Black Widow trilled a laugh.

For just a second, a physical wave went through the male heroes, as though many of them wanted to laugh as well. Iron Man--his visor up--actually quirked his lips. Hawkeye was still, his body and face set like stone.  
    
"Be quiet," snapped Steve, his deep beautiful voice hard as his shield. He stepped forward and glared at Bobbi, then turned to Lorelei. "I apologize for her disrespect, my Queen. It's her base nature and I was lax beyond belief to have allowed it to flourish in her."

"Allowed? Allowed? How the hell has that witch turned you into even more of a tight-ass killjoy than you usually are, Rogers?" Bobbi yelled at him, half laughing, half indignant. Black Widow reached over and laid her hand on Mockingbird's shoulder, making her subside.

Lorelei waved her hand airily. "I don't blame you my Consort. You worked with the materials you had to hand--a great pity they were so...poor."

"Oh, fuck you, you prissy bitch. I don't have to hypnotize people to get laid!" Mockingbird shouted, almost hopping with rage. Steve snarled at her, his hand going to the rim of the shield he still wore on his back.

"No." Lorelei stopped him with a word and a gesture. A shimmer passed through the air from her hand, curling around his face, making his expression go glazed and obedient. He stilled and straightened, standing like a wooden soldier at her side.

Black Widow's eyes narrowed. Mockingbird hadn't seemed to notice, still mouthing imprecations at the sorceress. 

Lorelei looked back at the women, her mouth curling into a vicious smile. "Consort, one of your minions has an attachment to these women, doesn't he? I believe I was told of it."

"Yes, my Queen. Hawkeye!" Steve barked.

The archer slowly stepped out of his place in line and walked over to Lorelei. He dropped to his knees in front of her, head down.

Black Widow and Mockingbird saw him drop and both snarled in rage at the very idea. 

Up on the balcony, Clint stared at the floor, his bow laid at the Asgardian's feet. 

"These women...one of them is your mate, my lovely little hawk?" Lorelei crooned, her voice sweet poison. 

"I have mated them both, my queen." Hawkeye responded in a meek, dull voice, still looking down. 

"Oh, my dear, really? You're more of a man than I had thought," she laughed brightly.

Mockingbird screamed a single word at her that was actually rude enough Steve flinched. 

"He doesn't mean at the same time, my queen," Steve said in a pained voice, looking down at the blond woman with an angry expression. "He had a historical relationship with Black Widow; he's married to Mockingbird."

"Hmm. Do you still care for--which one is Black Widow again? I don't pay much attention to peasant women," Lorelei remarked haughtily.

In the courtyard, Black Widow laughed at her, the sound incredibly contemptuous. _Translated from High Russian_ "I am descended from the czars, you pathetic strumpet. You are as a cart horse to a lion, compared to my blood."  
    
Mockingbird high-fived her.

"Oh, you bore me, you coarse little creatures. Archer, rise and attend," Lorelei ordered.

Hawkeye stood up and followed her docilely to the edge of the balcony. Steve stalked behind them both.

Lorelei pointed at the two women with a dramatic flourish.

"Kill them, there's a good boy," she ordered. 

In the breath, Hawkeye had two arrows out of his quiver and strung on his bow, so fast the appeared to teleport into his hands. His face went set and cold, his eyes piercing enough to burn through steel.

His arm drew back, holding the full 230 lb extension of the bow string as if it weighed no more than a feather. The arrows--tipped with vicious killing broad-heads--steadied and centered on the women.

Black Widow and Mockingbird stood still, straight and tall, both of them looking up calmly at the man they loved as he readied himself to murder them.   
    
And just stood like a statue of an archer, his arms locked, his face set. Unmoving.

Lorelei glared at him, her face twisting into something inhumanly ugly. Before she could say anything, Steve moved forward and slapped Hawkeye on the side of the head, sending him half sprawling, the arrows falling off the bow.

"Damn you, Hawkeye. Your queen ordered you. _Kill them!_ " Steve yelled. 

Hawkeye scrabbled around awkwardly, collecting the arrows, hunched over his bow like a dog protecting a bone. He looked up, his face etched with agony, his eyes twitching.

Steve slapped him again, full across the mouth, knocking him flat to the ground.

When Hawkeye sat up, there was blood dripping from his lips and his face was expressionless, robotic.

"Obey your queen," Steve snapped, raising his hand again.

Hawkeye stood smoothly, strung the two arrows back onto the bow, stepped forward.

Again, his arm came back to full extension as his laser like gaze targeted the women he loved, half naked and helpless before him. They could have both turned and run as fast as they could and he would still have put an arrow through both of their chests before they got more than a few yards.  
    
He held his pose for a heartbeat...

...and released the string.

Both arrows flew straight and true, directly for their targets.  
 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay folks!
> 
> And now...the conclusion...

The arrows Hawkeye fired at his wife and best friend struck home.   
    
Two strands of hair, one golden, one red, floated lightly down to the ground, pausing to caress the soft bare skin of an arm, a bosom, a hand. Black Widow and Mockingbird stood still and proud as the arrows embedded themselves with a solid _thunk_ into the cement base of the fountain behind them. 

They had passed just above Mockingbird's right and Black Widow's left ears.   
    
In the breathless silence that followed Hawkeye's willful, impossible defiance of Lorelei's order the archer looked directly at the Asgardian sorceress and sneered: "Don't need a queen. Got a spider and a little bird."   
    
Then he vaulted the railing, landing as softly as the strands of hair and sprinted to his team mates.   
    
The line of armed men in front of the door on the ground level raised their weapons in a rush as Lorelei screamed "Kill them all!" from the balcony   
    
Hawkeye moved to cover the two half-naked women with his body, his face blank and set.   
    
Black Widow knocked him down, crouching over top of him. Mockingbird jumped in front of her friends, ripping the ring off her left hand and snapping it in half with her thumbs just as the volley of bullets started.   
    
A cloud of dust spewed out of the ring, billowing up in front of the three Avengers, obscuring them from view for a second. The bullets sprayed the area around the cloud but the ones that hit it fell to the ground with dull noises, sounding like someone dropping coins onto a wooden table top. Each bullet was now a little sphere, coated with a dull metallic aggregate.   
    
Black Widow grabbed Hawkeye and hauled him around behind the fountain base--poor cover but better than none. Mockingbird landed next to them a moment later.   
    
"What the ever loving fuck?" Hawkeye said to his wife, his eyes wide.   
    
Mockingbird grinned wildly. "Magnetically enhanced particle concentration shielding. I took it out of R&D a few days ago on my little foray. We're developing it for Falcon, like cloud cover. I want to call it 'Sandstorm'."   
    
"That was the prototype?" asked Black Widow.   
    
Mockingbird nodded.   
    
"Failure rate?" the red haired woman asked dryly.   
    
"If I told you, you'd have to kill me," Mockingbird replied.   
    
"I might anyway," Black Widow said with narrowed eyes.   
    
"Why didn't you use it when I shot at you?" Hawkeye said, his voice leaking agony like a sieve.   
    
Mockingbird grabbed his hand, brought it to her face. "I trust you," she replied, simply. HIs fingers spasmed against her cheek, his eyes wet.    
    
From the balcony, Steve started to yell something, some order to the men below --   
    
\-- and was cut off by another voice, from mid-air in front of him.   
    
From the empty air.   
    
"Daken, now!"   
    
Up on the balcony the shirtless man's claws snapped out and he howled in wild joy, barreling straight for Lorelei.   
    
HIs murderous charge turned into a tumbling tackle as Steve Rogers spun between them, shield out. Instead of skewering the Asgardian, Daken wound up knocking all three of them off the balcony onto the cement below.   
    
Steve hit first, his shield underneath him--Daken's rush had been so fast and powerful he and Lorelei flew further, almost to the fountain itself.   
    
Black Widow deftly picked Hawkeye's pocket, coming up with a wicked clasp knife. On his other side, Mockingbird did the same, her find a black metal dulo dulo (1) sized for her hand. He kept both specifically for them, in the same way they both carried spare bow strings and packs of his extendable basic arrows. They were, within the larger entity of the Avengers, a team of three.   
    
Mockingbird pressed Hawkeye down as he stood up to join them. "No. Stay here--cover us. Away from--"   
    
He swallowed, hard, and nodded.    
    
Steve rolled to his feet and yelled "Protect your queen!".   
    
A wave of heroes poured off the balcony, Luke Cage and Iron Fist landing almost in each other's footsteps. Spiderman swung out over the courtyard and back again. Above him the air was suddenly alive with wings, repulsors and flame. Wolverine dove off the edge like an Olympian, claws and teeth out. Thing hit the cement with a crushing slam and Daredevil used him like a stepping stone to spin in mid-air, landing next to Steve.   
    
Daken rolled over, on top of Lorelei, his hand going up, his claws a white flash...and was punched off her by his father. Six metal points protruded from his chest as he arched into the blow. Screaming, blood raining down, Daken spun fast enough to spray red in a huge arc around him, whipping his father into the metal "A" of the fountain. Hawkeye ran backwards, away from the blood-mad X-Man; Black Widow and Mockingbird dashing to either side.   
    
As the three Avengers cleared the area, in the air above Captain Marvel shimmered into view, holding the Invisible Woman. Just as they appeared, Carol let go of Sue and took off straight up, as though fleeing the area. There was no time to process her sudden departure.   
    
Invisible Woman took quick stock of the situation and focused on the greatest threat: Wolverine. She whipped her hands out and he was suddenly prisoned in a band of clear energy, held up against the metal. But he was fighting her...and already gaining ground, his rage against her dispassionate calm.   
    
She-Hulk walked through the wall behind the line of armed men at the front door--with Shadowcat (Kitty) sitting on her shoulders, phasing them both through the concrete into the open air. Shadowcat jumped off, landing next to the external entrance keypad and began typing furiously. A grinning She-Hulk started snatching guns out of hands and breaking them in half.   
    
The blast shutters snapped down over the external openings on the first several levels of the Tower, blocking off the balcony as well.   
    
Lorelei and her pawns were trapped in the open.   
    
Iron Man spun in mid air then hovered, giving every indication of distress and rage. He was in the posture all of the other Avengers recognized as "yelling at his HUD" even if his pick-up mike was off.   
    
At the edges of the plaza, a sixty foot wall of wind rose up, a tame cyclone that sent everyone's hair whipping and nearly doused the Human Torch's flames for a moment. Storm floated down from the clouds, her eyes white, her hands raised in a beatific posture.   
    
Lorelei and her pawns were plain _trapped_.   
    
Steve leapt for Lorelei, just struggling to her knees, his shield foremost, the other entranced heroes following him like obedient sheep. Daken got to her first, sweeping her out of his path. His wounds were already closed and his face was manic with feral pleasure. He pulled the Asgardian into his arms and kissed her, passionately.   
    
Steve Rogers stumbled, his knees all but collapsing. A stuttering wave went through his little army as Daken's pheromones, an intoxicating mix of rage and pure male sexual energy, momentarily blotted out even the Asgardian's perfumed magic.   
    
High, high above there came the distinctive sound of a sonic boom.   
    
Mockingbird looked up, saw a flash of red, yellow and blue that started to glow at the edges, getting bigger and bigger.   
    
Carol Danvers had just gone hypersonic.   
    
Black Widow and Hawkeye both turned and sprinted for the farthest edge of the plaza they could reach, Mockingbird at their heels. She-Hulk started picking up the 'normal' men and dumping them in the only sheltered corner of the entrance way; Shadowcat sprinted for Invisible Woman. As soon as the smaller woman touched her, Sue released her hold on Wolverine who instantly leapt for her...and passed right through her. He slammed into Luke Cage, just starting to pull himself together.   
    
Steve Rogers looked up, saw the danger and paused, now staring at Lorelei who had just punched Daken off of her. Daken staggered back and loped away, laughing wildly.   
    
Storm gestured down and a wild gust of wind and ice pellets slammed into the men still standing: Torch, Falcon and Spiderman went tumbling, Iron Man's stabilizers fired, holding him in midair. Daredevil, Wolverine and Iron Fist were blown back; Thing and Luke Cage both hunkered down, shielding their faces.   
    
Steve--his pale sensitive face torn in the most profound agony--took one more step towards Lorelei--   
    
\--then dropped to his knees, pulling his shield up in front of him to cover his head. 

The Asgardian staggered in a circle, her face covered in Daken's blood, utterly bereft of defenders.   
    
And Captain Marvel, moving faster than the speed of sound, hammered both clenched fists directly into Lorelei's back.   
    
The Asgardian flew straight into the "A" of the fountain, ripping it in half with a scream of metal. Her broken body, tumbling and limp, landed almost at the edge of the concrete, actually rebounding off the still powerful wall of wind Storm held in place. The percussive force of the strike sent Iron Man spinning through the air until he hit the concrete of the far wall with an audible curse.   
    
The wind dropped from a roar to nothing in a breath.   
    
Everything was silent for a long moment.   
    
Steve uncoiled, holding his shield in front of him to cover the bare skin of his chest. He looked around at the stunned and shattered men; at Captain Marvel, hovering in front of him, her hands glowing and ready to strike. He took in Storm, still high above with black clouds gathered silently around her, threatening lighting. He saw Sue Richards staring at him, her face cold and regal, Kitty Pryde peering in his direction from behind her. Against the far wall, Hawkeye had his arms flung protectively around Black Widow and Mockingbird.   
    
Steve shook his head as though clearing water from his ears.   
    
"Avengers," he barked and it was audibly, heart-breakingly Captain America's voice that emerged from his mouth, "Assemble!" 

"Welcome back, Captain," Carol said softly, landing in front of him.   
    
"Thank you, Colonel Danvers," Steve returned gravely, shifting his shield to salute her. She out ranked him and he never forgot it.   
    
Iron Man landed next to them both with a crunch of pavement. "So the hell did you ladies do to my computer systems?" he snapped in a peeved voice, his visor coming up to show his face.   
    
There was a sudden flash of light next to Lorelei's body. The entire group of heros all flinched and turned towards it as one.   
    
Next to the sorceress's prone form four people had just appeared. One was Bruce Banner, who immediately started towards his friends, his gentle face alive with happiness. One was Thor in full formal armor, looking grave and angry. One was Lady Sif, also in her formal armor, who knelt next to Lorelei, touching her face and throat. The last was a large man with a shock of white hair, golden metal plating over rich robes of red and green...and an eye patch.   
    
Odin Allfather, King of Asgard, had come to Manhattan.   
    
Steve centered his shield again and stalked towards the ruler of Asgard. Without thinking about it the rest of the heroes fell into place behind him; Carol kept pace at his left shoulder. Hawkeye, Black Widow and Mockingbird angled over from the side, gathering Bruce with them as they came. Storm floated down, her face as regal and remote as Odin's. Even Daken trailed in, his dark eyes curious and calculating. Mockingbird made sure there were always a few people between them.   
    
They all halted a few paces from the Asgardian, just in time to hear Sif say: "She lives. She will be a long time healing but she lives."   
    
"I'll take care of that for ya'" Wolverine muttered, striding forward, claws popped.   
    
"Logan," said Storm quietly, echoed by Shadowcat. Wolverine paused, looked at them both, then faded back into the group. His shoulder were shaking with suppressed rage but he controlled it rigidly.   
    
"Captain," rumbled Odin, his deep voice shaking the air, "Asgard thanks you and yours for bringing this criminal to heel."   
    
"Midgard would thank you, sir, to gain some damned control over your own people," Steve snapped. "Three times now we've had to clean up some mess of yours. We're getting tired of being your janitors."   
    
There was a visible recoil through both groups as everyone processed Steve's words. Looking at him now, his normally invisible emotions were lividly obvious.   
    
Captain America was incandescently angry and it was _utterly terrifying._     
    
For a long moment the King of Asgard and the (still) de facto leader of New York's super heroes locked gazes. Then the ancient near-god nodded his head slowly, his single eye glinting. "You speak the truth, Captain. It is you who have suffered at Asgard's hands, when we have had nothing but respect from your people. I ask your--" He stopped for a moment, then spoke the words with a sigh. "I beg your forgiveness."   
    
Behind him, his son laughed lightly. "You question, father, why I am willing to follow this man--" Thor left the sentence hanging and stepped forward to clasp Steve's arm. "I would not have left but for the wisdom of the Lady Barton and Lady Romanoff. And though they were right, I beg you to forgive me my dereliction as well." He moved to stand next to Iron Man, facing his father firmly.   
    
"I was glad you got Bruce away, once I knew what was happening. I don't blame...you," Steve responded to him.   
    
Odin winced. "Enough, Captain. I understand your wrath but I am still a king. I will not debase myself or my people further."   
    
Steve opened his mouth, his eyes snapping.   
    
"For the love of everything Steve," Mockingbird moaned. "You're going to catch a damn lightening bolt in the face any second now."   
    
To everyone's surprise, Odin laughed aloud.   
    
"You. A well-made golden-haired woman of rare spirit and free words. So my son has described you, Lady Barton, and so you are. Thank you for your service to both our realms."   
    
Mockingbird bowed, her face going red. "I'm not really dressed for an audience, Lord Odin, but thank you. Though, you know, it wasn't just me in on any of this."   
    
"Indeed, it was not," Odin agreed. Sif rose to her feet, Lorelei's limp and bleeding form slung over her shoulder. "My handmaiden Sif will take the criminal Lorelei back to Valhalla; there my Queen will prise the secrets of her increased powers from her. I swear to you--to all you heroes of Midgard--such a thing will never occur again in any age of this realm."   
    
Steve settled back on his heels, nodding, his open emotions pulling back and down to their normal even keel. "Thank you. And I apologize for any disrespect on my part. I'm in...a very bad mood."   
    
"You have that right." Odin looked around, moving from face to face with deliberation. "Asgard acknowledges its debt of honor to each you." He focused on Captain Marvel. "My lady--"   
    
"Carol Danvers, sir," she said with a crisp salute. "I'm called Captain Marvel."   
    
"Lady Danvers, you were the women's war leader here?"   
    
"It was more of a collective but the prime movers were here. We left most of the force behind, with other orders, if we failed. But we were all in on the planning." She made a gesture that pulled in Sue, Jennifer, Kitty, Ororo, even Daken who stayed where he was at the back of the group. "And we couldn't have done it without Natasha and Bobbi. That was one hell of a distraction."   
    
"In a lot of ways," murmured Iron Fist lovingly, looking over at the two Avengers still in their underwear.   
    
Bobbi blushed again, trying to hide behind Clint; Natasha just quirked a cool eyebrow, a tiny smile on her face.   
    
"Well, if you'd give me back control over my damn computers, Pryde," Tony grated, "I could send someone to get them some clothes."   
    
Odin waved a hand and they all subsided. "All of you, hold out your hands," he ordered. One by one, the humans all extended a hand forward.   
    
Odin whispered something in a craggy, liquid language, gesturing sharply.   
    
A collective yelp went up as tiny bolts of electricity licked out to strike each of them on the palm. On each hand, the glowing outline of a spear appeared, then faded into a faint shadow.   
    
"If times comes any of thee need the aid of Asgard, it is yours without reservation. I name all of you Midgard's Spearbearers." He stopped and smiled a little, the expression kindly. "Thou women amongst you are now therefore my Valkyrie of Midgard, if it please you, Lady Sif."   
    
Sif nodded, her face serious but her eyes dancing. "I am pleased indeed, Lord Odin, to call such warriors my sisters. Be welcome in the halls of Valhalla." She raised her sword in tribute. 

"Father, I will remain with my comrades now. There is much to repair here, in the city, " Thor declared 

"Indeed, my son. If Asgard can give material aid, send word." Odin saluted the heroes solemnly and stepped back to stand next to Sif. "Heimdall! Attend!" He cried.

In a flash of light, they disappeared.

Steve spun around, clearly intent on stalking back to the Tower and found literally everyone staring at him.

"What?" he snarled.

There was a non-verbal jockeying that went around the whole group ( _You tell him..I'm not saying it, you say it!_ ) that ended with Bruce stepping forward.

"Steve, did you seriously just talk shit to...Odin?"

*****

_A week later_

Steve and Clint met in the elevator going to an unused residential floor of the Tower. 

"You know what this is about?" Clint asked.

"No, it was your wife who sent the message."  
"She doesn't tell me shit, Cap," Clint said with a grin.

They opened the door to what looked like a lecture hall.

Rows of chairs had been set up in the living/dining room area of the suite, with a small table to one side packed with snacks and drinks. Nearly all of the male heroes who'd been Lorelei's pawns were scattered around the place, talking, eating, looking out the windows. 

Clint walked straight in, going for the coffee urn.

Steve lingered in the doorway, his eyes shuttered and blank. He'd left the visible reconstruction efforts to the women, staying in the Tower and taking care of logistics quietly from there.

But he wasn't--you know--hiding or anything.

The door to the bedroom opened (there was a generic floor plan to the non-Avengers rooms) and Bobbi walked out, in jeans and a t-shirt. "Steve, shut the door and grab a seat, please. All of you, if you would."

One by one, the men settled in. Spiderman and Daredevil were in their full costumes, face masks and all; the rest were in street clothes. None of them looked comfortable but they all sat and watched Bobbi--and the blond woman was clearly Bobbi, not Mockingbird--as she paced a moment in the front of the chairs. Clint approached her, touching his hand to her face and sharing a smile before he sprawled across two seats himself. Steve sat down in the back row, his eyes focussed on the middle distance.

"Thanks for coming. I'm really please everyone showed. I mean, not Wolverine and Punisher but they did at least politely decline," Bobbi said.

Iron Fist snorted. Loudly.

"I consider Frank telling me to 'fuck off' polite, Danny," Bobbi responded. "Logan was the soul of curtsey. Okay, Storm was standing behind him but still..."

Bobbi walked back and forth a moment, looking at the men one by one.

"I asked you all here today because...well, because I'm pretty sure none of you but Sam will have the slightest fucking clue how to deal with what happened to you." She nodded at Falcon. "And no matter how much you talk about something happening to someone else, there's always a disconnect when it happens to you. So, you know, I have a story to tell a bunch of you."  
    
She paced a few more times, looking clearly like someone working up the courage to say something. Steve sat up--so did Clint, Iron Man and Falcon--with similar expressions of muted horror.  
   
"About seven--holy fuck, seven?--years ago I was on the run from...well, like everyone, everywhere. Danny knows the beginning of the story and my team knows the rest. But here's it all laid out, bluntly--"

She stopped and stood still, her voice going clinical and flat. Just the edge of her stutter slide into her recitation, a small triumph.   
    
"I was in G-g-g-germany and I got cornered by four different groups who wanted my head: Interpol, Hydra, AIM and someone I still haven't been able to identify. I was injured, alone, terrified, sick...I trusted someone I shouldn't have trusted. That p-p-p-person drugged me, kidnapped me and took me to a c-c-c-c-abin in Italy where he spent about a week raping and torturing me."

"What?" Yelled Iron Fist, standing up. "Bobbi, why didn't you call me? Why didn't you--"

"Sit the fuck down, Rand," grated Clint, turning his head to look at Danny, who blinked, swallowed hard and subsided next to Luke Cage.

Bobbi opened her hand in a small, helpless gesture. "Danny, I know. I know. Can you say 'trust issues'? In any case, that's sorta not the important part here. I'm telling you all this story so you get that I mean it when I say 'I understand'." She looked from face to face again. "You were violated. Some more than others. It's not a competition by the way. No matter what or how much was done to you, it's going to have an effect. You can deny it. You can ignore it. But it's still there. So, I'm offering all of you this: let me be the shoulder you lean on."

She paused again, looking over at a computer monitor set into the wall. "You all have Starkphones. Well, you'll find my personal phone number in each of them. If you need to talk, to scream, to just have someone standing in the same room who won't judge you, call me. I swear, anything less than 'saving the world' is happening, I will be there for you. It's been years. I'm happily, passionately married. The man who hurt me is in prison. I have security and as much safety as my job allows me. And I still wake up screaming in the night."

"Less. Less than ya'used to, little bird. Every year, a little less," Clint said softly.

Bobbi nodded at him. "I think it's always going to be there, always going to flavor some part of my psyche. And this--what happened to all of you, is going to sit there like a rock for all of you too."

She tapped her hand on her thigh. "You're all--even my team mates--thinking some version of 'I don't need you! I can take care of myself!' And you surely can. But I'd like you to all look around the room and realize you have something here, now, that none of us had before.

"We're all strange creatures, aren't we? We all came into this...profession...the same way we came into the world: alone and screaming."

There was no reaction.

Bobbi paused, looked around the room one more time. "Geez, tough crowd."

Clint flipped her the bird. 

She grinned. "You have--we all have--for the first time in our lives...peers. People who actually understand what it means to do what we do. People who get what it feels like to be considered a useless flake by family and friends because you _always_ have some lame excuse for being late, missing events...People who know what it's like to be truly helpless and alone, in the face of things that no sane person should have to deal with.

"Don't throw away that gift because you think being a hero means being solitary. I thought I was better that way and so I suffered for years. Fear, pain, anxiety. Self-doubt, self-hatred, disgust. Thoughts of suicide and self-harm. Then I was offered this, this miracle: friendship. Fellowship. A team.

"We--the Avengers--" and now she gestured to Tony, his head down; Sam, his eyes clear and calm, looking at her with forthright respect; Clint, his eyes filled with love; Steve, looking anywhere but her "--we are the definition of gestalt. As cool as we all are alone we are magnitudes more than the sum of our parts. What this whole thing has taught me, anyway, is that same thing is true of all of us. When we have to come together, we can make something so damn awesome a freaking _goddess_ can't stand against us.

"So, call if you need me. You are my friends and friends are just family you choose. I choose all of you, who have suffered and faltered and risen above it all. Even when you fail, when you fall, even if you don't feel like it right now, you're heroes. The world needs you. And you are not alone.

"And if any of you doubted that you were fighting as hard as you could, the whole time Lorelei had you under her control, remember this: you all know damn well I don't wear a wedding ring."

Johnny Storm, who had been nearly monosyllabic for days after the Tower had been freed, sat up at that, something new blossoming in his eyes: hope.

It passed like a wave through all the men, and Bobbi smiled a little tremulously to see it catch hold. It had been the only thing she had been trying to create.   
    
Later, when everyone else had left--all of them quiet and subdued but thoughtful--the Avengers remained behind, talking. 

Tony was still deep in reworking all of the security systems for the entire Tower. He bitched and moaned about it endlessly but they all saw the quiet, healing joy in his eyes when he was head down in the re-build. It was the best therapy anyone could have ordered for him.

Bobbi was leaning on the table, one foot in Clint's lap, rubbing her bare toes against the cotton of his t-shirt. Steve was pacing back and forth in front of the windows, his hands in fists. Sam was watching him out of the corner of his eye, though he faced the Bartons. They were all exchanging significant looks back and forth where Steve couldn't see them. 

"When are Jemma and Fitz coming back?" Sam asked Bobbi.

"Eh, month or so I think. They were overdue for a report back to Hunter and Braddock anyway so we told them to just take some time for themselves. Fitz was pretty shaken up by the whole thing but thankfully Lorelei never had time to figure out who he was. If he'd been at the Tower when I was infiltrating I don't think I could have gotten hold of the data like I did."

Tony swallowed a handful of chips and narrowed his eyes at her. "Actually, how did you get a hold of it? Shouldn't have been possible, really."

Bobbi turned and studied him intently. "I know, right? Shouldn't have had access and even if I did get the data, it should have been invalidated in like, five minutes by the internal security backups. It's almost like someone ordered Jarvis to ignore me or something."

Tony stared at her, his hand shaking a little before he stuffed it in his pocket. "Uh, I don't remember doing that. For the record."

"You wouldn't. It was all sub code, sloppy and dirty and fast. Kitty Pryde found it yesterday, in the very lowest level of the protocols. I think you farmed it out to some of the bots so you could deny knowing anything about it even to yourself."

"I...I guess I am a genius, after all," Tony replied in a weak imitation of his usual bluster. Falcon laughed and clipped him on the shoulder. 

"Good work then, Tony. Better than the rest of us managed," Steve called from the windows, the bitterness in his voice leaving a sour taste in all their mouths.

Bobbi looked at Clint, then the other two. "Take a hike, guys. I gotta speak Italian to Rogers for a minute."

"Sure," said Clint amiably. "I think I did okay with the not killing the girls thing though."

"Doesn't count, you had practice with all this mind control crap," Sam replied. 

"I'll practice on your face, Wilson," Clint replied. They exited, bickering in a friendly manner. 

Bobbi watched Steve pacing for a long time, then walked over and turned off all the lights in the suite. The only illumination was from the city outside the windows. Steve turned and looked at her, just a powerful shadow against the background; he would be able to see her quite clearly, she knew.

"Steve," Bobbi said quietly and calmly. "I need to ask this bluntly: did she rape you?"

His whole body jerked and went very still. Bobbi held her breath, her heart in her throat.

"No," he said eventually, after a long enough time that her lungs were protesting. "It was a near run thing but...no."

Bobbi opened her mouth--and Steve kept talking, his voice dead and flat, a monotone.

"She didn't...rape me...because of you, you know. I don't even...I didn't know how to thank you for that. It seemed so petty and small and wrong to even say it to you. As though what I went through that week was even the weakest shadow of what you went through--"

His words stopped when Bobbi flew across the room and hugged him so tightly his lungs compressed.   
"Praise the universe for small mercies," she whispered against his chest. Steve's hands hovered at his sides a moment, then came up to encircle her shoulders. He dropped his chin to the top of her head--as big and powerful as Bobbi was, he loomed over her by more than a head.

"What did you mean, because of me?" She asked him, her voice muffled against his body. Her arms did not release, holding him tightly against her. There was nothing sexual about it; she held him as she would hold a child, a puppy: all comfort and support.

In her embrace, Steve's knotted muscles unkinked, his back relaxed, his heart slowed. 

"She tried on and off for days. I could always deflect her without making it seem like I was, even to me. There was always a new thing to be done, security to see too. The night before you and Nat showed up--before it was all over--she wasn't going to take no for an answer though. She hinted if I didn't...please her...enough she was going to force the others to...either get involved in the show or maybe she was going to kill them while I watched. Wasn't clear." 

He tightened his own grip on her a little, her sturdy frame like glass and lace to him. He could barely remember what it felt like to be held this way; his mother had died when he was so young and hugging just wasn't something men did when he was raised.

"I think she could read minds a little. I was all smiles and nodding at her when she told me to strip--she was really inside my brain right then--but I actually heard myself, in the back of my head, heard the words like I was speaking them aloud in a dream 'If Bobbi can endure what she faced, I can endure this.' And her face twisted--inhumanly ugly, she became--and the next thing I knew she was screaming at me, just noise and rage and then I was outside in the corridor, naked. With everyone looking at me."

Bobbi sucked in her breath in horror. "Oh, Steve. Oh, Steve. Oh..." There were tears in her voice now, and warm wetness against his shirt.

He actually laughed a little. "S'okay. It was kind of funny. Clint and Sam jumped in front of me and Tony turned to all the others and said 'Nothing to see here...well, lots to see here, apparently the super soldier serum affects the whole body but still, avert your eyes for gosh sakes!' And everyone looked away and I made it to the elevator without dying of shame."

"I wish we'd let Logan kill her," Bobbi said in a cold voice. 

"I don't. That's not us. Not any of us," Steve responded firmly.

"It's kinda some of us."

"Nope. Not allowed to be anymore." And that was Captain America's voice again, clearly from his throat. None of them had heard it since Odin and Sif had left.

Bobbi squeezed him one more time and stepped back, letting the light from the window fall on her face so he could see her expression: pride, relief, mocking good humor. "Well, isn't it convenient that you being an eavesdropping jerk turned out for the best, hmmm?"

He snorted. "Yeah, that's the take away for that story."  
"I'm here for you, too, just like the others. If it comes back, if you need to talk, I'm here," she said in a serious voice.

Steve reached out and cupped her face with his left hand, his shield hand. He had long fingers, mobile and sensitive; artist's fingers, as suited to a paint brush and pen as to the weapons of war. He was seized with the sudden urge to sketch her, with her staff in hand, grinning out of the page with fierce joy alive in her eyes.

"We're all here for each other, Bobbi. We always have been. If nothing else comes from this...disaster...at least we've proven that. To the heroes in the city and across the world; to the other teams, the other agencies, the solitary, the mystical, the military. We stand together."

She covered his hand with her own, her lips trembling a little.

He smiled for nearly the first time since the end of the Siege and spoke a word that summed up the single condition that had brought them victory against impossible odds, yet again.

"Assembled."  
    
    
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) A dulo dulo is a small hand weapon of horn, bone or wood used in Philipino martial arts. It can be used as a striking or stabbing weapon depending on the type and conceals in a pocket.


End file.
